


The Color of Machines

by NightWing18



Series: Colors of Hugh and Alan [1]
Category: The Imitation Game (2014)
Genre: Color Bonding, I'm Bad At Tagging, M/M, Soulmates
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-09-30
Updated: 2015-11-06
Packaged: 2018-04-24 05:03:34
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 4
Words: 3,681
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4906570
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/NightWing18/pseuds/NightWing18
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Everyone is born seeing the world in black and white, until the first touch of their soulmate. Alan Turing firmly believes that he does not have a soulmate, that it would have been Christopher if it had ever happened.<br/>But.... Is he wrong?</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

  * For [MaddeningNoise](https://archiveofourown.org/users/MaddeningNoise/gifts).



> Hi! This is, clearly, my very first Imitation Game fic, the first one I have ever posted on this sight, and the first story I've written in a long time. So, please please please be nice? :) I know it doesn't all match up with the movie, that was kind of the point, some of it was changed to get my point across.  
> Above all, Thank you for reading. I don't own The Imitation Game, or its characters.

Alan liked maths. Liked numbers. They were much easier to deal with than people, and when Christopher had given him his first cryptography book, it had opened up a whole new world. Besides… it didn’t matter if you were still grey when you were able to solve codes in just a few minutes. You didn’t have to see in color to solve complex equations, didn’t have to know the difference between the whole spectrum of colors to understand math problems or crosswords. As long as one could tell between several shades of grey, which, naturally, everyone could, one could get on with their life. 

At least… That’s what Alan told himself nearly everyday. It was easier for him than for some, he supposed, he hadn’t grown up with parents telling him that he would definitely find his soulmate one day, that the whole world would light up with colors he couldn’t even imagine. And as he got older, only making one friend, not going color for him, and then his (friend’s) death.… He had accepted that he would never find his soulmate, that he probably didn’t even have one. Had gone so far to work out the exact probability of having one, and if he did, the chances of him ever finding them. 

The odds, of course, were very slim. Especially to someone like him.

Even though it didn’t matter to the universe if both you and your soul mate were male, it was still greatly frowned upon. And seeing as how Alan had been proven very gay so far, it was likely his soulmate was too. If he had one.   
Which he didn’t.

Alan ran a hand through his hair, shaking the thoughts away. Things were going very well for him just then. He was finally getting somewhere with his research, Christopher was being built well. He was sure Enigma would be cracked soon. It was just a matter of time, and everything would be okay. The war would be cut short. After two years of work, it would work.

If they could just get him to check through the possible combinations fast enough, everything would be okay. Alan knew it. Knew it with every fiber of his being. He could do this. Christopher would work. 

He dressed quickly, smoothing out his jacket and checking one last time to make sure that he was prepared for another day of work before setting off. He was exhausted. They had been working on this for so long, at times it almost felt like it would never work.. But it had to. It just had to. They didn’t have a choice in the matter. 

Alan made his way back to his work station, spying other members of his team making their way to their own stations. Another long day of decoding, another mess, they really only had today left before the plug was pulled, Christopher destroyed, and himself fired to make room for the old fashioned, much too slow way of doing things. 

The door swinging shut behind him, only to be opened a few short minutes late by Hugh entering the room behind him, Alan cut a path through the desks covered with papers to the back room that housed Christopher. He had to work fast, devote every moment of his time to make Christopher faster. 

He looked up at his machine, his life’s work, as it clicked along in its attempt to decipher the latest batch of codes. Last day. Last day. The words repeated, over and over in his head as he watched the wheels in various shades of grey spin and click, different letters being tried with no better results. There were just… too many possibilities. 

And that was how the rest of the day went, more failed tries, just the constant clicking of wheels turning. And as it got nearer to midnight, the steady clicking was overrun by the ticking of the clock, counting down. Closer and closer to midnight, with no results, and Alan was going insane. They were so close, he could feel it…

Until that alarm went off and destroyed everything. The ringing slowly died down, but Christopher continued to click away, doing what it could, but there wasn’t any point anymore. Alan cracked, broke, reaching forward and turning the three switches along the machine, silencing the clicking. No. This.. it couldn’t be the end, it just couldn’t be, if they only had some more time… 

But that was the problem, wasn’t it, they were out of time. There was nothing left they could do. 

The others talked on the walk to the bar, but Alan couldn’t be bothered to keep up with the conversation, barely remembering to hold up his security pass at the guards waving flashlights as they headed down to the bar. And once they were there, he paid even less attention, nursing his drink slowly.   
Until Hugh was forcing him to introduce the older to Joan’s friend. Then… Then everything took a turn. It took moments for everything to click, and then he was badgering Helen for information, racing out of the bar and back to their workroom, fighting through the security and paying no mind to the yelling from behind him. He had to be fast.   
His words were hurried as he tried to explain, taking the morning weather report from Joan’s hand. “So we know there will be three words. Weather, obviously, and-”

Hugh cut him off, a laugh in his voice. “Heil bloody Hitler.”

“Heil bloody Hitler.” Alan agreed, grinning. 

It took next to no time for the team to configure Christopher, each watching with baited breath as the machine started clicking again. And fell silent. Alan raced the results to their own Enigma, praying that it would work. The few moments of silence that followed were destroyed by the cries of victory behind him, as he stared down at the black letters against the various shades of gray. It sounded numb for the first few seconds before he was up and cheering just as loud. The first hug was from Joan, her arms tight around him as he hugged her back loosely. He pulled back, smiling down at her, and not for the first time he wished she could have been his soulmate. Joan was perfect, they could be happy together, but… Even if he wasn’t going to have colors, she should have the chance. She should get to see the world as beautifully as possible. When they finally stepped back, there were tears in her eyes, a smile on her face. 

The next hug was from Peter, a brief hold from the young man, and finally… Hugh slid his arms around Alan’s shoulders in a loose embrace, the first time they had really ever touched, and he lightly looped his arms around Hugh’s shoulders. The hug lasted for just a few brief minutes, before Alan was pulling back, a faint smile gracing his lips as he met Hugh’s eyes… and froze. 

Color. Such a bright, lovely color, Hugh’s eyes were, and if he had his pocket color guide, he’d desperately try and find out what color it could be. But as it was, he had stopped carrying the little book around years ago, when he had finally given up all hope of finding his soulmate. 

But there was Hugh, smiling at Alan like nothing had happened, pulling out of Alan’s stiff arms without a care, probably thinking it was just another thing that separated him from everyone else. Alan backed up slowly, disappearing back into the room with Christopher as different colors appeared all across the machine. But the color of Hugh’s eyes stayed in his mind, he couldn’t let himself forget.

He had to go home and find out what color that was.


	2. Chapter 2

It took Alan a fairly long time to get himself calmed down, rubbing his eyes and watching as more and more colors appeared before him. There were so many, he hadn’t realized just how many made up Christopher alone. But in the end, he did manage to hide the fact, slipping back out into the room with the rest of his team, all still celebrating their victory.

Of course, things couldn’t be happy for much longer, not when the reality actually came down on them. Of course… It shouldn’t have been this hard to face the fact that they wouldn’t be able to stop every attack, but it was much harder than Alan had expected when the first ship they couldn’t save was full of innocent citizens and a handful of soldiers.   
One of which was Peter’s brother. 

The fight that followed was horrific, the shattered look on the young boy’s face when they finally told him that they couldn’t save his brother… 

Alan supposed he deserved the fist against his face, even as the force from the younger sent him wheeling back into the table behind him. He was screaming as he was lead away, about how him and the girl back home had just bonded before he left, and how Alan didn’t get to play god. 

But he was promptly distracted by Hugh helping him up, looking concerned as looked over the already forming bruise around his eye. “You’re going to have quite the black eye,” he mused, but the other wasn’t listening, Hugh’s touch was solidifying the colors still forming around him. And as his eyes flicked up to look into his eyes, he saw that they weren’t just one color. They almost seemed to change between several different shades. 

“Alan?” Hugh asked, Joan appearing at his side. 

“I… I’m fine,” he assured, shaking off the hands and smiling faintly. “Really. I am. Come along, without Peter we’re a pair of hands short, and need to get started on the decoding.”

The worked through the rest of the morning, Alan doing a fairly good job of hiding the fact that as he went, more colors appeared, becoming more and more finalized as he looked around.

Finally, as he stumbled back into his room, Alan was able to fully appreciate everything around him. He dug through his things, finding his little pocket book and flipping through as quickly as he could. Hugh’s eyes. He had a desperate need to discover the color of Hugh’s eyes. His frantic fingers slowed as he reached the section labelled ‘BLUES’. As he looked through the squares, trying to match what he had seen, he discovered that, depending, Hugh’s eyes fit several different shades of blue. Deep Sky Blue fit when he was laughing, but they were more of a Steel Blue when he was angry, like when Peter was throwing punches. True Blue seemed to fit, as well. He spent a few minutes flipping through the book, learning the bare minimum, so that.. If he woke up in the morning and still had this, he would know what he was looking at.

Sighing softly, he shut the book, slipping it into his pocket. At that moment, he regretted not saying anything, but… nothing had happened to Hugh. And he had heard stories.. Sometimes, people weren’t each other’s soulmates. It was rare, but it had happened, and that scared him. The last thing he wanted to do was tell Hugh what had happened, only to find out, that while Hugh was his soulmate, he wasn’t Hugh’s. 

Rubbing his eyes again, glancing at the clock, he fell into bed. He would get some sleep, see if the colors were still there in a few hours, before deciding if he was going to confront Hugh about it or not. Slowly, his eyes drifted shut.

The next morning, he refused to open his eyes for a few minutes. He didn’t know what he would do if something had gone wrong, if the whole thing was in his head… Finally, he opened his eyes.

Sunlight streamed through his window, casting yellow squares of light against the dark brown wood floor. He sat up slowly, looking down at himself and smiling a little as he pulled at the tan pants he had slept in, standing and looking around the room. It all seemed so much… better, now, with colors everywhere. 

He changed quickly, taking the time to look at every color of fabric he owned before dressing and heading out again. It was almost six, there would be a whole new set of codes, new papers to sift through and figure out. He couldn’t wait. 

When he entered the workstation, though, he found that he wasn’t the only one looking at the world with new eyes.


	3. Chapter 3

“Hugh?” Alan asked, slowly walking into the room and watching him for a minute, sliding his hand into the pocket with his pocket guide, mostly to keep it from being seen. 

Hugh spun around, smiling at him brightly. “Alan! Alan, you won’t believe what happened.” He was almost breathless with excitement, coming forward to smile at him. “Alan, I’ve gone color.” 

Alan chanced a small smile. “R-really? A-and who is it?” He asked softly, glancing down at the floor for a brief second, almost terrified of what he would say. 

Hugh smiled a little, shaking his head. “I think… It was Helen. But I suppose we’ll see, won’t we? If she goes color to, then we’ll know.”

Alan could feel his heart cracking, tossing up walls so fast it was almost dizzying. “Oh. Well, she seems.. lovely. I hope you’re happy with her.” He said softly, smiling a little. “Have you told her yet?”

“No, not yet. I was already in here when they started coming. You’re the first person I told.” Hugh smiled brightly, turning away and looking over the room again. “God, Alan, I wish you could see it.. There’s so many different colors... “ Slowly, he started walking around the room, pulling his own pocket guide from inside his jacket and comparing them with things he saw. 

Alan stood back, against the wall, watching his every step. It almost… hurt to breathe, watching him walk as he babbled about the different colors he saw, how he was going to talk to Helen about it, even about the possibility of moving to live near her. It all sounded so… lovely. If Alan could focus on the words. Instead, he was focused on the steady rise and fall of his voice, the gentle cadence that was going to wind up entwining in his dreams. 

“Alan? Are you listening?” Hugh asked, breaking through the stupor that had settled around the younger man. 

He startled slightly, nodding with a smile. “Yes.. Yes, of course I am. I was just thinking... “

“Oh really? Are you going to let the class in on it?” Hugh asked, voice just this side of teasing.

“Just that your eyes never stay one color of blue and it’s starting to bother me that I can’t put one name to it.” Alan said, stiffening the second it came from his mouth and covering it quickly. “I.. I’m sorry.. I didn’t.. Just f-forget that I…” He stumbled back, towards the door, spinning on his heels to dart from the room. 

“Wha- Wait! Alan!” Hugh called, shaking the shock away as he broke into a run after the other. 

Of course, he had no chance of catching up, Alan easily putting his marathon training to good use as he wove his way through the buildings, people, and cars, out into the open air. 

Hugh slowed to a stop as Alan got farther and farther away, panting harshly as he watched the younger escape through the fields. Oh no...

Hugh sighed softly, running his fingers through his hair and taking a steadying breath, watching Alan disappear into the distance. "Good job, you moron. You really messed that one up." Never mind that he had no idea Alan had gone color, let alone for him, or that it really wasn't his fault that his mind had gone to Helen. If he had just /known/ that Alan had gone color.. He didn't even like Helen that much, Hugh had just never made the connection with the only other new person for him to touch the night before. 

But, he couldn't really blame the younger. They had a rocky relationship to say the least, Alan probably thought he wouldn't want him around even if they were soulmates. 

Hugh sighed again. He had a lot of thinking to do before Alan came back...


	4. Chapter 4

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm just going to take a minute to say that everyone who has left kudos, comments, have bookmarked it, or even just read this, you all have really made my day :) I appreciate every single one of you.   
> Next, this is the last chapter of the story, but I have an idea for a possible sequel in the works about what happens after everyone goes home, and how Alan and Hugh navigate that minefield? If you could let me know if you would be interested in reading it, that would be great!  
> ON WE GO

Alan was miles out when he finally slowed, hands on his knees as he gasped for breath. He was such an idiot, how couldn’t believe he had just said that! How stupid could you get, really, to basically come right out and tell someone you thought they were your soulmate.. seconds after they were rattling on about their soulmate? That was just opening him up for heartbreak. 

Hugh was probably back with Helen already, laughing about how an idiot like him could ever think someone like Hugh could be his soulmate. Slowly, he sunk to his knees, before settling back to rest on the ground, knees pulled to his chest as he buried his face there. His shoulders shook with silent sobs, tears he would normally never let fall, but everything was just so overwhelming.

He stayed that way for an hour, at least, before getting himself back under control. Still, he sat there for a few minutes, enjoying the silence, the faint chill of the morning air. It calmed him, and he looked up at the light blue sky before him, with just a few wisps of white clouds. He supposed… if he came right down to it, the intense pain in his chest was worth the colors around him. 

Alan stood slowly, rubbing the tears from his eyes and taking a deep breath. He straightened his jacket, smoothing out his pants, his walls coming up around him. The ones he had been forced to construct after Christopher’s death. This hurt just as much, a throbbing pain over his heart.

It took a few minutes, but Alan was mellowed out, emotions well locked away, and he started to walk back. It took much longer, naturally, he was dragging his feet in an attempt to stay as far away for as long as possible. 

Hugh was waiting for him, looking worried and concerned, pacing across the path as he watched for the gangly man. So when Alan appeared through the bright sun light, looking one hundred percent calm mathematician, he jogged forward, biting his lip slightly. “Alan?” He said softly, slowly reaching out to touch his shoulder. 

Alan pulled away from the touch, straightening up. “I am f-fine, Hugh. N-no need to worry about m-me.” He said, stuttering a little as he started walking again. It was after six, they had work to do, more messages to decode. Hopefully, Peter would be able to continue their work. Hopefully... The pain of the day before wouldn't drag him down to far, that he might be able to power through and step the men that killed his brother. Alan doubted it, but he could hope. 

“Alan, wait!” Hugh called, catching up to him easily. “Hey, come on, we need to talk ab-”

“Talk about WHAT?” Alan screamed, wheeling around to glare at him. “What is there to talk about? That, while yes, it would appear you are my soulmate, clearly I’m not yours? Or how about the fact that I’m a complete idiot to even entertain the thought that anyone could love me, soulmates or not? Possibly about this pain I’m feeling because I know I’ll never be good enough for you, but I want to be so bad I can’t breathe?!” Alan fell silent, tears in his eyes again. 

Hugh’s eyes widened slightly, a pain deep in his hear. Did Alan really think he wasn't good enough? That he wasn't brilliant in every way, that And then he was grabbing Alan’s arm, dragging him into through the nearest door. The younger gasped as he was pushed, hard, into a wall, and then lips were over his. 

Alan stiffened, surprised, before he was relaxing into the firm kiss, raising his arms slowly to slide around Hugh’s neck, holding him closer as he kissed back. It felt wonderful, like the knot in his stomach was unwinding as Hugh softened the kiss, a gentle give and take that was leaving Alan’s head spinning. 

Hugh finally broke the kiss, leaving them both gasping for air. Gently, he pressed their foreheads together, smiling gently and closing his eyes. “I don’t think Helen is my soulmate,” he whispered, gently cupping Alan’s cheek and listening to his breathing. 

Alan blushed, leaning into the warm hand on his cheek. “Oh.. good,” he managed, smiling a little and pressing a soft, sweet kiss to Hugh’s cheek. “We have work to do,” he whispered, chuckling softly and pushing him back. 

Hugh laughed as he stepped back, nodding. “Alright. Work now. Play later,” he teased, opening the door and letting Alan out first, following close behind as they prepared for another day of decoding. 

The day passed in a rush of numbers and letters and, most importantly, colors that filled their heads, only getting more vibrant with each 'accidental' touch between them. Alan was giddier, happier then he had been the entire time they had all been there, and Joan was quick to notice. Being the sharp-minded girl she was, it wasn't hard to draw a connection between Alan's giddiness, and Hugh's bright smiles. She grabbed the younger of the pair for just a second to whisper a congratulations in Alan's ear, causing him to blush delicately, before quickly getting back to work with a hushed thanks. 

The work wasn't nearly as long as before, now that they had the codes and were able to translate them in moments. So, they were able to leave fairly early, Hugh having no qualms about grabbing Alan's hand and swinging them slowly as they walked, leaving the others for their trip down to the pub to go to Alan's room, wanting to be alone. 

It appeared that Alan was wrong, after all.


End file.
